Monday Munchies, Part 16: The Wednesday Edition

This post is a continuation of the Monday Munchies series, where I show everything I eat over the course of single day. And as if the title of this post wasn’t confusing enough, the photographed day was ACTUALLY a Monday. This past Monday, in fact.

As I mentioned in this post, my sister Courtney and her boyfriend Ben came to visit us this past weekend. We saw the sights, ate delicious food, and enjoyed the company. A day in the life of the THIH sisters:

Breakfast, 7:30 am:

In the mix: Nonfat yogurt, banana, frozen blueberries, chia seeds, raw oats, raw spinach, carrot juice, and water.  The gorgeous orange streaks are due to me forgetting to add the carrot juice until after the smoothie was made and attempting to mix it in later. Coincidentally, I also discovered random blasts of carrot juice are not my favorite thing in the morning.

Decaf coffee with foamed milk and cinnamon:

After breakfast, we visited the University of Illinois’ gorgeous greenhouses.

Courtney signing the guestbook:

Cacao pods:

I wanted to Photoshop a picture of Peter into the next picture of orchids so that he could pretend he was Nero Wolfe, but I ran out of time (or energy. Take your pick.)

What a treat these greenhouses are in the middle of winter! I encourage anyone in the Champaign-Urbana area to check them out.

Next, we stopped by a tea shop that caught Courtney’s eye:

We sampled some coffee and bought some tea. Funny how that always seems to happen.

Lunch, 1 pm:

In the midst of exploring, we ate lunch later than usual.

The plate of beige is contains leftovers from our Golden Harbor feast the evening before.  Both Courtney and Ben loved this restaurant, which justifies my ever-waxing poetic expressions toward this local gem. The GH leftovers were accompanied by an endive salad with mini bell peppers and a glass of skim milk.

Finished with a piece of Peter-made peanut butter chocolate,

and a cup of matcha tea, prepared from matcha (powdered green tea) bought at the tea shop.

I’d never had matcha tea before, and I’m not convinced that I like it. I’ve had it mixed into baked goods and ice cream, so perhaps I’m looking for a little sweetness with my matcha?  I’ll give it another try and report back.

Courtney and I took the dogz for a bone-chilling walk early on, then spent the rest of the afternoon baking and cooking. Perfection.

Dinner, 6 pm:

Homemade whole grain toast (with a few Peter-bites out of it) and butter, with a bowl of clam chowder (NOT made by us).

Herbed tofu and red rice-stuffed peppers with scamorza. Recipe coming up later this week. After the clam chowder, I could only manage about half this pepper. I certainly could have enjoyed more of the stuffed pepper if I had started with a broth- or veggie-based soup rather than a cream-based soup (says Jessie the dietitian). Still, for a very occasional treat, the clam chowder was a fun starter.

Courtney made a lot of baked doughnuts. And I mean a LOT.

Rolled in cinnamon and sugar:

We also fired up the chocolate tempering machine so Courtney and Ben could dip doughnuts and marshmallows. I threw in some chocolate-dipped apricots because YUM.

I sampled a doughnut, chocolate apricot, and some chocolate-dipped banana (the best!).

By Courtney’s request, I whipped up some gluten- and dairy-free pumpkin custard.

We didn’t actually eat them until breakfast the next morning, but here they are all the same:

So, there you have it! A treat-filled day in the THIH household.

Enjoy the rest of your week, dear reader.

P.S. Bonus pic! Here I am representing Strawberry Fields at a community diabetes event in Champaign, IL yesterday evening. Working the table with me were the wonderful Jenny and Phil (taking picture). We handed out tons of recipes, coupons, and information!